Taipei mayor leads delegation to Shanghai as Beijing ramps up pressure on Taiwan

Taipei Mayor Wayne Chiang Wan-an called for peace and dialogue between Taiwan and the Chinese mainland as he led a delegation to Shanghai on Tuesday for a three-day visit aimed at easing cross-strait hostilities.

The visit by the great grandson of the late Kuomintang (KMT) leader Chiang Kai-shek – one of the few city-level official exchanges between the two sides – came as Beijing stepped up its warnings to Taipei not to ally with the United States to counter the mainland.

“The cross-strait [situation] at this time is not calm and this is not what Taiwan’s people who desire to have peace, stability and prosperity want,” Chiang told journalists in Taipei before boarding a plane to Shanghai.

The rising star of the main opposition KMT party said recent trade disputes between the two sides have further increased cross-strait friction and animosity.

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“This is why we urgently need a dialogue mechanism to settle [disputes],” Chiang said, adding that only when the two sides were able to maintain a steady channel of dialogue would they be able to stabilise their relations.

Beijing, which views the self-ruled island as its territory and has not renounced the use of force to bring it under its control, has suspended official talks and exchanges with Taiwan since Tsai Ing-wen, of the independence-leaning Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), was elected president in 2016 and refused to accept the one-China principle.

Last weekend, Beijing delivered a one-two punch following the recent US stopovers by Taiwanese vice-president and leading presidential contender William Lai Ching-te – a trip Beijing saw as a breach of Washington’s one-China policy, and a violation of its sovereignty.

Taiwanese Vice-President William Lai addresses supporters in San Francisco on August 16. Photo: Reuters

On that weekend, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) launched a day of exercises to “seize maritime and airspace control” while testing “the capability of the command’s forces in coordinated operations and systematic confrontation”. Beijing then announced a ban on mangoes from Taiwan, prompting the island to file a complaint to the World Trade Organization for settlement.

The US, like most countries, does not recognise Taiwan as an independent state but is opposed to any unilateral change by force of the cross-strait status quo.

Chiang said the annual Shanghai-Taipei Twin City Forum, which he was scheduled to attend on Wednesday, would provide a platform for dialogue between the two sides.

As the mayor of Taipei, Chiang said he had the responsibility to seek a bright future for the island’s capital city and prosperous development for Taiwan.

On Tuesday, Chiang and his delegation of about 150 people, many from the business sector, visited the Yangshan Deep-Water Port, the world’s largest container port, and other facilities in the city.

Chiang was expected to meet Shanghai Mayor Gong Zheng at a reception on Tuesday night, and address the opening of the forum on Wednesday.

The theme of this year’s forum is “new trends, new development”, with the two cities expected to forge non-political agreements, including promoting cooperation on carbon reduction, sustainability, the exhibition sector and badminton, according to the Taipei city government.

It was not immediately known if Chiang would meet Song Tao, director of the mainland’s Taiwan Affairs Office, before his scheduled return to Taipei on Thursday, though the city government had said there would be no such arrangement.

Chiang’s trip has been harshly criticised in Taiwan, with DPP lawmakers and councillors accusing him of appeasing Beijing despite constant threats to attack the island.

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Mainland China launches military drill near Taiwan in ‘severe warning to separatist forces’

In the past year, Beijing has intensified military operations around the island to ramp up pressure on Taipei.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Taiwanese defence ministry first reported it had detected 11 PLA warplanes and 10 warships around Taiwan, with two J-10 fighter jets entering the island’s southwest air defence identification zone.

A drone was detected crossing the de facto median line in the Taiwan Strait as it circled the entire island in what appeared to be a mission to gather intelligence and test Taipei’s reaction, according to the military officials.

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Later in the afternoon, the ministry said it had detected 24 more aircraft conducting joint patrols with five PLA warships. It said 12 of the planes crossed the median line or entered the southwest air defence identification zone.

The ministry said that maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait was a shared responsibility of all parties in the region, including Beijing, and continuous military harassment could lead to a sharp escalation of tensions and worsened regional security.

South China Morning Post